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Seth D- Everglades
EVERGLADES A guerilla-style war raged during the late 1830’s as the Seminoles resisted government pressure to relocate them to Oklahoma. Some of the Seminoles went west, but others retreated southward and took refuge in the Everglades. Military officers on expedition against the Seminoles were the first to recommend that the Everglades’ millions of acres of swamp and overflow lands be drained for agriculture. By the early 1890’s, agriculture had been established in the Everglades. They sold small agricultural plots to new settlers, setting an example for what would become a familiar pattern of land promotion in Florida. Large-scale sugar cane plantations were created around Lake Okeechobee beginning in 1910. The Everglades soils were a deep, black much when they were first drained. This type of soil is known as Histosols. After drainage Histosols are well suited for agriculture, although they are prone to shrinkage from the wind and from drainage. PRODUCTION Since the 1920’s the area south of Lake Okeechobee has been used for sugar cane and winter-vegetable production. The “sugar cane parishes” of Louisiana and the Everglades are the two major sugar cane producing areas on the U.S. mainland. The domestic sugar cane industry relies on government price supports and a protective tariff that shields its higher production costs from lower-prices sugar imports. The winter-vegetables grown here are: radishes, eggplants, squash, parsley, celery, and tomatoes. Production is concentrated near the southeastern margins of Lake Okeechobee and west of Miami. They also suffer from foreign competition. Sugar cane and winter vegetables demand a lot of labor input. Even though they have problems with low wages and labor abuse in these industries, profitability in both areas is marginal. PROBLEMS The land here has been abused. When Histosols are drained of excess water, their bulk begins to shrink and the land surface settles. Land subsidence has required new efforts to reduce seasonal floodwaters. Sugar cane is burned before harvest to stimulate the flow of sugary juices in the stalks and to remove leaves and other excess vegetation. The flow of water in the Everglades is produced by the slight southward slope of the land surface. They tried to construct new drainage channels and flood-protection levees after WWII, but that only created problems. In 1926 and 1928 more than two thousand people were drowned when hurricanes blew Lake Okeechobee's''' waters out over the surrounding land. The entire lake was surrounded by higher levees to control the hurricane threat, but this prevented the natural flow of water southward from the lake’s margin and deprived the Everglades of moisture during the spring dry season. The Everglades are distinct partly because it is an open, marshy environment rather than a forested swamp. About half the former Everglades is now devoted to agriculture, especially the area south and east of Lake Okeechobee. In 1947 the Everglades National Park was created. The Everglades National Park represents about seven percent of the former Everglades. But, this area has been altered by drainage and turned the grassy wetland into a subtropical scrub forest. '''OTHER REFERENCES Okeechobee Hurricane by Lawrence E. Will http://www.amazon.com/Okeechobee-hurricane-Hoover-Dike-Lawrence/dp/B0007FOOC8 America's Everglades http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/levelthree/americas%20everglades Park information http://www.everglades.national-park.com/ ''Across This Land ''by John C. Hudson